Leah Remini’s self-proclaimed “team” of expelled misfits have plenty in common with her, from spreading hate from the fringes of the Internet to treating those they work with like dirt.
Here’s what Remini has in common with Team Leah’s Mike Rinder, the professional anti-Scientologist who abandoned his wife of 30 years and then assaulted her when she approached him to speak about their son.
They are both abusive to family members
Leah Remini is known for her nasty treatment of family members who were employed by her. Her stepfather once wrote that Leah’s younger sister Shannon was in tears and upset about how hard it was working for Leah, and how Leah had fired her a few times. Remini had also fired her mother Vicki at least twice in a 3-month period and Vicki had quit on several occasions.
Rinder is a violent, unstable man who abandoned his family without a word. Three years later when his former wife, Cathy, approached him to try and inform him about their son’s life-threatening cancer, he attacked her uncontrollably, shredding her arm to where she may never regain full use of it again. He ignored his two children to the point where his son stated, “I don’t think he’s ever called me in my life.”
Both deserted family members when they needed them most
In January 2014, National Enquirer ran a story about Leah Remini snubbing one of her sisters, who was dying. The story was based on a claim from Leah’s stepmother that Leah had turned her back on cancer-stricken Stephanie Remini and ignored her pleas for help.
Years earlier, her own father wrote that Remini had refused to loan him $1,200 to pay for a CAT scan during his health scare:
Donna asked you for a $1,200.00 loan so I could see a doctor. I needed a CAT scan and some other work. She said she would pay you back and we would only need the money for about 60 days. She gave you the doctor’s name and number and you said you would take care of it. My appointment was three weeks away so she thought that would be enough time for you to take care of it. Three weeks and you still couldn’t take on a doctor bill that you volunteered and promised to take on but you didn’t. Maybe deep down inside yourself you have some issues with us.
When Mike Rinder’s son Benjamin was fighting for his life, Rinder’s wife Cathy tried to inform Mike, but he refused to speak with her. Benjamin had been told by his doctors that he might be dead in five years if the intense regimen of treatments proved unsuccessful. Mike Rinder never bothered to visit his son (except when he showed up with cameras for the media), never offered to do anything at all to help his son’s recovery.
Both have repeatedly tried to cash in on being an anti-Scientologist
Remini, in her attempt to salvage her failed career, published a book about her exit from the Church of Scientology to make a few bucks, then sold her anti-Scientology series to A+E, profiting off of bigotry. Remini recently attempted to extort the Church by first demanding $500,000, followed by an additional $1 million, because the Church invoked its First Amendment right to respond to her false claims with the truth.
Rinder has admitted under oath to being paid $175 an hour by ambulance-chasing plaintiffs’ attorneys filing frivolous lawsuits against the Church. He admitted in deposition to a moneymaking scheme in which he was recruiting potential plaintiffs for a civil lawsuit against the Church, one of whom was Leah Remini, his co-host on this series. When he isn’t painting houses with ex-convicts, Rinder tries to make his living lying about and denigrating the Scientology religion.
They don’t play well with others
Remini refused to pay three of her past managers, resulting in two lawsuits against her for breach of contract and a lengthy arbitration dispute with the third. Remini’s brief job as one of the hosts of The Talk ended in acrimony in 2010, with co-host Sharon Osbourne publicly complaining about Remini’s “negative, unprofessional and childish behavior.”
Rinder is infamous for sleeping on the job, bullying and becoming violent with co-workers. Rinder once said of himself: “I’ve treated other staff with disdain … I have acted in a totally psychotic manner—blaming others for my own failings and lashed out in a compulsion to ‘get even.’”
Both have become desperate after burning bridges
Remini’s last sitcom, Family Tools, was cancelled after only two shows, and her last reality show was cancelled after two seasons. As described by one former friend, Remini would routinely refuse to talk to people when she got upset with them and even change her phone numbers. She once texted a longtime friend and employee and fired her just three weeks before Christmas. Desperate for the attention she once enjoyed, she now spends her time spreading malicious lies and creating hate with other anti-Scientologists. As USA Today wrote, Ms. Remini is “as famous for being an ex-Scientologist as she is as an actress.” Or, as one of her former associates succinctly summed it up: “Hate is hate. Leah is a hater.”
Rinder cut all ties to his family and friends, and now he’s in bed with the same people he once proclaimed to the press were liars. His blog exists on the fringe of the Internet in a pathetic attempt to harass his former Church and its members, often using sick, sophomoric humor. Rinder is consumed every waking moment with creating and forwarding hate about the Church and its parishioners.
That’s Team Leah.
